The present invention relates in general to the art of nailing and, more in particular, to the art of automatic nailing tools.
Nails for years have been driven by hand-held hammers. In comparatively recent times nailing guns have become available. Typically, the guns are pneumatically powered, extracting energy from compressed air to drive a nail at the command of a gun's operator. The guns have a body housing the passages, valving and pistons used in converting pneumatic energy into the kinetic energy of the driver. A driver head of the gun has a chamber that receives individual nails and orients nails into the path of the driver. A magazine feeds nails to the chamber.
The nails for automatic nailing guns have come prepackaged. Typically, the nails are oriented with their axis in a plane, their heads overlapping, their shafts parallel, their heads at the same elevation, and their shafts held together by parallel plastic bands. A spring loaded follower urges the banded nails towards the chamber of the gun. With the driving of each nail, a new nail advances into the chamber for subsequent driving.
Prepackaged nails are considerably more expensive than loose nails. A second disadvantage is the bands that orient the nails. When the nails are discharged from the gun, the plastic strips are cut into small pieces and discharge with the nails. These pieces can make a work area very slippery, which can be very serious in such places as roofs. Further, it takes time to clean up the strips to prevent the hazzard and to present a well kept appearance.
A difficulty with a spring-biased follower is the tendency of the follower to buckle the nails that it urges against. Accordingly, the number of nails in a package of nails with the orienting straps must be limited.